


Joining Forces

by devilswreckedchewtoy (AmberFyre)



Series: Waiting For a Star to Fall [3]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Originally Posted on Tumblr, RP verse fic, Season 09 AU, Season/Series 09
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-15
Updated: 2018-09-15
Packaged: 2019-07-12 18:02:57
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,489
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16000481
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AmberFyre/pseuds/devilswreckedchewtoy
Summary: Sam has never been fond of hunting alone. So when he ends up running into Ezekiel and Ben more than once, he suggests working together might be better than constantly tripping over each other.





	Joining Forces

**Author's Note:**

> Written for implumem and wolfofthe141-archive.
> 
> This was the second chronological fic following Sam Winchester, Ezekiel and Ben White (an OC) for an RP verse on tumblr circa 2014. It was based on my Angel Wings verse. Unbeta'd so any mistakes are my own. As per usual, I own nothing but the story. Originally posted on tumblr.

The second time they ran into each other, it was two weeks and three states later.  Sam was tracking down a vamp nest when they crossed paths.  Luckily _before_ his cover was blown by his face-twin Ben, who greeted him with what seemed to be a habitual scowl.  Sam hadn’t spent a LOT of time in his presence but he got the feeling Ben didn’t smile often.

Ezekiel was friendlier, but Sam didn’t miss the slight possessiveness Ben displayed towards her.  It wasn’t blatantly obvious, but it was clear to Sam that whatever he’d picked up between the two of them hadn’t been imagined.  Sam made sure not to give Ben any reason to think he was even remotely challenging that claim.  Besides, relationships were the last thing on his mind.

But Sam was still on his own, vamp nests were usually not best to tackle without back-up and he’d seen firsthand with the Striga case that both Ben and Ezekiel were capable fighters, so they teamed up again to clean out the nest before going their separate ways.

When their paths crossed yet again, four states over and only ten days later this time, Sam was trying to track down a shifter who was racking up a body count.  Seven on the ground and another missing by the time Sam came on the scene, Ezekiel and Ben showing up within hours of him.  He couldn’t figure how they managed to keep finding the same cases.  He’d rarely crossed paths with the same hunter this many times in this short a period.  It occurred to him to briefly wonder if they were following him, an idea he dismissed quickly enough.  Ezekiel and Ben seemed just as startled to run into him as he was to run into them.

Ironically enough, it was having both Sam and Ben working together that helped to trip up the shifter.  Once they’d managed to dispatch him, actually saving the eighth victim in the process, Sam hesitantly mentioned that the three of them made a good team and maybe they should work together for a while.  He was tired of traveling alone, and they did work well together, for three people who hadn’t spent a lot of time around each other.

It visibly surprised Ezekiel, who no doubt had heard about how the Winchester brothers were rarely apart and Sam didn’t want to go deep into the reasons behind why he and Dean were going their separate ways.  It was still painful to discuss, especially with strangers who didn’t know the brothers’ history.  But he trusted Ezekiel and Ben to have his back, something that didn’t happen often.

He honestly expected them to decline the offer.  Not because they obviously had a relationship going and he’d be a third wheel, but because no one he’d come across yet (except Garth) who became a hunter was the sociable sort.  He was surprised when it was Ben who grudgingly agreed.  Sam wasn’t sure why the other man thought it was a good idea, especially when he saw the surprise in Ezekiel’s eyes as well, but he didn’t make a big deal of it.  He figured Ben had his reasons, and Sam would either learn them eventually or not, depending on how much Ben decided to trust him.

Of the three, Sam had the most experience as a human hunter.  Ben was new to the game though he was adapting quickly enough to the world of the supernatural.  Sam learned he had a military background (not surprising) as well as something (likely more than one something) tragic in his history.  And while Sam had yet to come across a hunter in his experience who didn’t have tragedy in their past, what he could sense of Ben’s was particularly poignant and traumatic.

Having his own tragic and traumatic (and cursed to his way of thinking) history, Sam didn’t press for details.

Ezekiel, being an angel, also didn’t have the same kind of experience with humans or hunting.  She _was_ an angel though, which meant all the powers and talents all angels came by she had.  She was a fighter, and fairly good at it, though it didn’t seem to be her first choice.

Sam wondered how the two had met.

For all that Sam had recovered his memories and his Grace, his life as a hunter was more immediate in his mind.  Therefore he still felt most comfortable handling weapons he’d been using for years, had been trained with most of his human life.  He would forget, especially in the heat of the moment, that he had access to more abilities than he was used to.

Not to mention using them sometimes reminded him fiercely of Lucifer.  Therefore he chose not to use them unless he had no alternative.  Between his present and his memories of his past angelic life lay years of living as a human and even more years upon years of his soul having been trapped in the Cage.  So things most angels did instinctively, Sam still had trouble doing.  Something Ezekiel found hard to understand at first.

And as Sam’s past was forever something he preferred not to discuss if given a choice, it was often hard to explain to her _why_ he didn’t fully embrace his angelic side.  However, after traveling with them for some time, and especially after encountering a demon who said far more than Sam would have liked before they managed to kill him, he was forced to give Ben and Ezekiel a little more history than he had when they’d first met.  Not only because of the demon’s big mouth, but because Sam knew he and his brother tended to be on every big bad’s radar and it didn’t seem fair not to let Ben and Ezekiel know what they were inviting by continuing to travel with him.  Also because, with Ben looking so much like Sam, he worried something would mistake the other man for him and he just couldn’t live with the thought that he could inadvertently cause Ben harm just because they looked alike.

Ezekiel, being an angel, knew about the whole Lucifer’s true vessel thing.  Sam would have been surprised had she not.  For a while the whole Apocalypse thing had been pretty big.  He also, honestly, expected her to hold it against him.  Most angels had and still did.  It wasn’t something Sam supposed he would ever live down, although he guessed that being an angel now kind of negated the whole vessel thing anyway.  Although that brought with it its own issues, being he had been a rebel then and was part of the reason he’d chosen to fall in the first place.

Ben, being new to hunting, didn’t really know the Winchester’s reputations.  Sam only gave them the basic outline without going into personal details.  And was stunned that neither of them immediately decided he should find a better place to be.  He wasn’t used to acceptance from many except Dean, Bobby and Cas.  So he was grateful that Ben and Ezekiel seemed willing to accept him on the merits of his current behaviour rather than what he’d done in the past or his human bloodlines.

For himself, he found Ezekiel less of a dick than he’d come to think of most angels as.  Besides the vague recollections of her he had buried in his memories, he found her to be honorable and she had a conscience, something most angels seemed to not have.  Or at least, if they did it was not something Sam could usually relate to.  He found he respected her, not only for being herself, but for how’d she'd managed to adapt after the whole angelic expulsion Metatron had pulled.  Not all angels had done so well.

Ben… was prickly, standoffish and not inclined to open up.  Sam got the sense of walls laced with barbed wire and ‘Keep Out’ signs around Ben most of the time.  Ezekiel seemed to be the only one he was willing to let in.  For all that, Sam could tell Ben was actually a good guy under all the prickles and unfriendliness.  Which was all the more impressive in Sam’s mind.  It was hard to stay a good person when shit happened to you.  And with the walls Ben had around him, Sam knew some serious shit had happened.  Everyone coped in different ways.

Knowing the two of them had a thing going, he never hesitated to get a separate room, leaving the two a chance to have some kind of privacy, something that couldn’t happen much when they were driving long distances.  His room generally ended up being the meeting place for discussing cases, leads and eventually downtime.  A camaraderie built between them that Sam hadn’t expected, though he welcomed it.  And came to treasure it.

It truly never occurred to him that it could become anything more.

Until it did.


End file.
